Posted on 10/06/2004 5:22:39 PM PDT by jpw01
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) on Wednesday released a list of firms and people from dozens of countries allegedly given oil vouchers by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government that could be turned into cash.
The charts, compiled from 13 secret lists by Iraq (news - web sites)'s former vice president and oil minister, enumerates legitimate contracts to oil companies. But it is also a veritable who's who of political groups and individuals from whom the former Iraqi government wanted to buy influence while under U.N. sanctions.
The list was issued as part of a report on Iraq's unconventional weapons by CIA (news - web sites) advisor Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. inspector in Iraq. But Duelfer did not say whether anyone had tried to verify the names on the list.
Among the alleged recipients of oil vouchers were Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his Liberal Democratic Party, the Russian presidential office, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ukraine Community Party, the Ukraine Socialist Party, the son of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and the Peoples Liberation Front of Palestine. There are also many others.
The only U.N. official on the list is Benon Sevan, the head of the humanitarian program for Iraq, who has been accused previously of receiving an oil voucher and has denied it several times. He is list as a Mr. Sifan, a U.N. official.
The United Nations (news - web sites) has given its documents to Paul Volcker, former head of the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) for an independent probe.
"We are not going to comment on any specific allegation against Mr. Sevan or anyone else," said U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard. "This is in the hands of Paul Volcker. We are cooperating with him fully. Benon Sevan is cooperating with him fully, and we will wait for Volcker's judgment."
All names of Americans and British companies and individuals, whether suspected of wrongdoing or not, were deleted from the list, part of which had been published by an Iraqi newspaper in Baghdad after the war in March 2003.
Iraq was under a sweeping U.N. trade embargo in August 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. The sanctions were tightened after the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) and not lifted until last year.
At the end of 1996, the United Nations and Iraq began the oil-for-food program that allowed Baghdad to buy civilian goods and sell oil to pay for them under U.N. monitoring. But since 1990, Iraq, with the knowledge of the United States and Britain, freely shipped oil by truck to Jordan and Turkey, before and during the U.N. program.
Deals with governments generated over $7.5 billion for Saddam from the early 1990s until the start of the 2003 war, the report said.
Iraq earned an additional $2 billion from kickbacks or surcharges associated with the oil-for-food program, $990 million from oil "cash sales" or smuggling, and $230 million from other surcharge imposition, the report said.
Companies in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen helped Saddam acquire prohibited items through deceptive trade practices, the report added.
"Saddam personally approved and removed all names of voucher recipients. He made all modifications to the list, adding or deleting names at will," the report said.
Oil companies were forced to pay surcharges, which by late 2,000 amounted to 25 to 50 cents per barrel.
But Russia blocked U.N. efforts to force oil buyers not to pay it. Britain, followed by the United States, later forced the United Nations to set oil prices retroactively to cut the surcharge.
U.S. oil companies purchased Iraqi crude from middlemen rather than directly from Baghdad. By early 2003, the United States was consuming 67 percent of Iraqi crude, by far the largest buyer. (Bernie Woodall contributed to this report)
For instance . . . a certain benefactor of democrat 527s?
I heard all Americans were left off, and that is crap!
Thanks, I knew all I had to do was ask. This is why the MSM is no match for FreeRepublic.
That's who I want to know about.
Bump to get this list posted
That's all I want to know too. Those that profited from the blood of Iraqi's need to be revealed. The other countries won't hang their own but ours need to be brought to account.
Where is the lists of the companies...
I guess the "no blood for oil" folks were right, they must have been referring to the French, Russians and the UN.
Oct Surprise Part I of IV Bump!
Me, too.
Senator Kerry, How was the United States supposed to include France in a global "coalition" against Saddam, with the legitimacy that you crave, when France's leaders were simultaneously taking bribes from Saddam Hussein?
To be fair, Kerry did call it a coalition of the bribed ... perhaps he had France on his mind at the time.
Hmmmm.
Could George Soros being indicted by the October surprise? It would freeze all his assets and make me weep with joy.
Claudia Rosset who has been on this story is on Hugh Hewitt now.
"This story is finally starting to break"
Good!
I wonder if the Clinton gang was in on it? I wouldn't be surprised. Their pal, Rich was involved. In fact, most of the unsavory characters involved were friends of the Clintons. Like the ole saying goes....if you lay with the pigs, you smell like the pigs. :-)
Only him, eh? I expect the entire French government got something - if not directly from Saddam, them through standard government bribery channels from TotalFinaElf.
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